Nassif Hitti is one of the newly appointed Lebanese ministers, who could be described as a “specialist,” a quality which Prime Minister Hassan Diab wanted to attribute to all cabinet members.
The Foreign Minister brings together the expertise of diplomacy, from the Arab League where he served as the organization’s representative to Paris and UNESCO, and teaching as a university professor.
According to observers, Hitti is capable of playing a true role in restoring Lebanon’s diplomatic relations with a number of Arab states, to the phase when such countries supported Beirut in times of financial crises.
A Lebanese ambassador based at the foreign ministry in Beirut told Asharq Al-Awsat that the new minister is able to create a “thaw” in the diplomatic relations between Lebanon and Arab countries following frosty ties under former minister Gebran Bassil, who had always opposed the decisions of Arab states issued against Hezbollah.
Lebanon announced on Tuesday its new 20-member cabinet line-up, 33 days after Diab's designation as PM.
Other than trying to improve ties with Arab states, Hitti has a mission to ameliorate diplomatic relations with Washington, the ambassador, who was not identified, told the newspaper.
Bassil had been seeking to replace the country’s alliance with Washington with improved ties with Moscow, said the diplomat.
The ambassador added that the new Foreign Minister should also be swift in holding contacts with France which hosted and organized the CEDRE conference in 2018.
Such mission aims to speed up the release of funds pledged by donor states amid promises from Beirut to implement reforms and approve the 2020 budget.
“Hitti is a veteran diplomat who played an important role in strengthening cooperation between France and the Arab League when he headed the AL mission in France,” the ambassador said.
The new FM is expected to assume his new mission on Monday when Bassil returns from Davos, where he represented President Michel Aoun at the economic forum.
